Scientific Review of Subbasin Plans for the Columbia River Basin Fish and Wildlife Program

A group of 26 members from the combined Independent Scientific Advisory Board, Independent Scientific Review Panel, and its Scientific Peer Review Groups reviewed the 45 plans that cover 58 subbasins for the Columbia River Fish and Wildlife Program. We appreciate the efforts of representatives of the various subbasins who briefed us on their plans and patiently answered our questions. We made every effort to thoroughly review the plans and to apply a consistent level of scrutiny for all subbasin plans, but we acknowledge that the time constraints of the review process made it impossible to examine each plan and discuss each review in the detail we would have liked. For each plan, we address the central questions asked by the Council with regard to the likelihood that the plans would succeed in their attempts to recover fish and wildlife, but, given the sheer volume of material to review, some things no doubt were overlooked. In addition to individual reviews, we provide overarching programmatic observations that represent our general view of the technical merits of the subbasin plans as a whole, but that do not apply equally to every plan. We realize that subbasin planning is a work in progress and hope that our programmatic comments, as well as our specific review summaries and checklists for each plan, assist the Council in developing a strategy to incorporate the plans into the Fish and Wildlife Program, and guide planners in future revisions.